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Monday, May 27, 2013

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TIME MACHINES

“If I could only go back and do things
differently.” How often do we say that
to ourselves? Until somebody invents a
time machine, there’s really nothing we can do to change the past. And if anybody ever does, then we’d have to start
worrying about the whole space-time continuum thing that never makes any sense
in the movies we watch. But the one
thing we can do is to learn from other people’s mistakes and avoid them
ourselves.

Unfortunately for me, I chose not to learn from
other’s mistakes but decided to repeat them myself. The biggest piece of advice most missionaries
get is to devote their first year or two in the country to language
acquisition. “Don’t get sucked into
ministry.” “Learn to say “no” to people.” “Pack your schedule full with language
classes and study time to give you an easy way out.”

I heard all of this and more before I left for
Thailand. I knew the realities, but I
came over on a one year program through my mission agency and my family and I
weren’t sure if we would make it more than a year. So instead of language acquisition, I entered
head first doing the ministry I came over to do. Before I knew what happened, I was sucked
into the ministry vortex. One year changed
into 18 months and then came our first furlough. (By the way, I can’t stand the term “home
assignment”) I barely knew any Thai, yet
I was trying to be a productive missionary to Thai people.

With our first furlough finished, stint number
two was about to begin. I was determined
to make things different. I negotiated
six months away from any ministry to delve into the Thai language. It was great.
I learned so much. But I thought
I had reached a point where I could go back to the ministry and only study
part-time. Truth be told, I really
wasn’t there. When I would try to talk
to the students I was working with in Thai, I barely understood anything they
said back to me. They were talking way
too fast. When they noticed I wasn’t
catching on, they reverted back to English, because the little English they
knew was far superior to my Thai.

Then came the move. My family and I moved away from Chiang Mai to
Korat. We were helping to start up a new
ministry in a city that is barely reached with the gospel. Korat isn’t anything like Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is filled with missionaries and
tourists. The Thai people there know
English well. The ones that don’t, at
least know specialized English for whatever business they are in. Korat, on the other hand, doesn’t get any
tourists. The only foreigners in the
city are some Vietnam War Veterans and a handful of missionaries. I was suddenly forced into a world where you
either had to know the language or drown trying.

If I had a conversation with people, there was no
reverting back to English. Even our
staff meetings were conducted in Thai. I
was instantly lost. But I didn’t give
up. I kept at it and probably saw the
most dynamic growth I have ever had in Thai.
In about three month’s time I went from not understanding much that was
going on, to actually being able to go into the market and hold down a
reasonable conversation as well as being able to participate in the staff
meetings. This was true language immersion. It was both stressful and fun. I highly recommend it.

So, I never went back full-time into language
study. It has all been part-time. While I can say that it has been fruitful to
an extent, If I were to do it over again, I think I would have devoted my first
two years to language acquisition and stayed away from any ministry. I also would find a city like Korat to do
this study, so I could really immerse myself in the language. I’m confident that this is the best route to go
for the long-term missionary. Hopefully,
any future missionaries out there reading this will learn from my blunders and
follow the advice I didn’t. But if I
know human nature, then there will still be many learning the hard way, just
like me. 1.21 jigowatts of power!

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